Yaniv's friend has recommended we go to a local place in town for breakfast but since he's a morning person and got up at like 6:45am, I bailed on him. I just couldn't get out of bed. So I slept for another couple hours. In all honestly, I needed some alone time and a break from his incessant talking. I did eventually get up slowly though around 9:30am as the campground was packing up. I did the normal not-quite-awake things like go to the bathroom, wander around, rub your eyes for 20 minutes, etc. I also paid for another night's stay. I gathered a few things after that and rode into town for breakfast at another location of the Pign'Pancakes restaurant. It's like a local, slightly-better-than-IHOP kind of a place. I charged my phone while I ate in order to let the outside world I was still alive...

Obligatory "make friends jealous" pic.

After I finished breakfast, I rode back to camp and moved my stuff to the more prime site location that was previously occupied by the Swiss couple. It's slightly more prime because there's a picnic table. I changed into some warm-weather clothes since the sun had started to peek through the cloud cover and made my way back towards the beach. I sat on a piece of driftwood the better part of an hour as I played with the sand with my toes. I called my grandma to wish her happy birthday too and generally enjoyed just sitting down with no agenda on my rest day. After the previous four days of riding, my Achilles tendons were sore as were my knees (and pretty much every muscle in my arms and legs) so aside from wanting to stay to experience Cannon Beach, I needed to not ride my bike anymore for at least 24 hours.

I had my camera gear with me and walked down to beach taking photos and some video clips. The section of beach closest to Haystack Rock is littered with tide pools and because I happened to be there at low-tide, it was pretty neat checking out all the wildlife that lives in them: starfish, crabs, anemones, barnacles, etc. The opposite end of the beach looks just like scenes from the Twilight movies and it's spectacular. When I saw it for the first time the previous evening, the cliffs were blanketed with Lenticular clouds, the kind that form as they move up the cliff. Have I mentioned how much I like it here?

This table for four was really just a table for one.

I knew I needed to catch up on some blog updates and so I walked into "downtown" and found Bill's Tavern & Brew House. I got a table with a plug underneath so I could charge my computer, phone, cameras and lights and so I could actually write some more. They make 8 different types of beer in house from light-light to stout and I'm sure all of them are worth checking out. The Daywalker Ginger was the most different and very, very good. I spent about 4 hours there writing off-line since they didn't have a wifi connection. After I caught up, I paid the bill and went out to the beach to watch the sunset. Holy moly. It was spectacular. It's hard to beat sunset on the Pacific coast with absolutely nothing to block the view. It's like watching the sun sink below the end of the Earth.

Once it started getting dark, a bunch of little fires started popping up that were made by people who wanted to continue enjoying the beach by warding off the cold. I did eventually get cold and made my way back to the campsite to happy find all my things just as I left them. The place is called Wright's For Camping and I HIGHLY recommend them. I will no doubt come back here. It was that nice. I showered, brushed my teeth and got in my tent. I brought a few books and read one of them for a while until I got tired. I turned off my light and tried to massage my quads since they were so crazy sore and tight feeling. It hurt to kneed them but it helped I think? I fell asleep not too long after.

Things learned today: I've been struggling sleeping in my sleeping bag because it likes to slide off my sleeping pad regularly. My solution was to only get in the sleeping bag liner and then unzip the sleeping bag and use it as a blanket. It worked! This second night camping out was the first time I've actually slept decently well in my tent since I've owned it. I was really happy to wake up feeling somewhat rested. =)